Australia is back on the global stage - and misinformation is too.
Amid all the drama surrounding tennis star Novak Djokovic & his vaccine status, some news anchors & opinion hosts here at home & overseas have been commenting on the general COVID-19 situation here in Australia.
On Fox News’ ‘The Five,’ hosts discussed the world number 1’s situation & also played a clip from NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner's press conference, where he announced a lockout for the unvaccinated.
Note the lower third they used:
"COVID CRACKDOWN: AUSTRALIA PUTS HARSH RESTRICTIONS ON THE UNVAXXED"
That’s leaving out the fact that, unlike some strong suggestions we’ve seen on social media, a total lockdown for unvaccinated people has NOT come into effect nationwide.
Those 'harsh restrictions' only apply in the NT - and while there are restrictions on unvaccinated people in several other states & territories, they’re nowhere near the levels of the territory - nor do they apply everywhere.
Another host, Martha MacCallum, also added a comment about the "President of Australia."
Of course, we have a Prime Minister - Scott Morrison - who is not responsible for these lockdowns, with that left up to the leaders in each state & territory.
This isn’t exactly new - in August, when Victoria, NSW & the ACT where in lockdown - we reported on misleading claims about the so-called ‘Australia Lockdown’ which technically didn’t exist - given it was not a national lockdown.
Around that time, another Fox News host - Tucker Carlson spoke about "the government implementing total lockdowns nationwide," which excluded all the states & territories not under restrictions at the time.
So, let’s quickly go over the basics once again:
Australia is not in lockdown
The ‘lockout’ for unvaccinated people applies in only one territory
The Federal Government is not implementing these restrictions
And there’s no President of Australia
Watch our full report here.
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